


A Mother's Burden

by lottare (anexorcist)



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-06
Updated: 2010-04-06
Packaged: 2017-12-04 15:53:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/712451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anexorcist/pseuds/lottare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She cries again, because that is a mother's burden.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Mother's Burden

**Author's Note:**

> “Perhaps it's because it's not sad enough”
> 
> ~06 April, [31_days](http://31-days.livejournal.com/profile)

The night she lays with a stranger and feels the Old Religion thrumming in his veins, Hunith cries for the first time in a long time, because she knows even though he will be gone before the sun rises, she will feel his hot, calloused hands long after his death.

When she learns she is with child, she silently weeps because she can feel her babe's heartbeat fluttering with the same magic that coursed through that stranger's body. After, she wipes her eyes, packs only what she can carry, and finds a small village where she can hide her son - she knows it's a boy because something deep in her knows he will be like his father, and maybe, that is the reason she doesn't travel the beaten path.

At eight years old, Merlin is a handful of loud, boyish trouble. Hunith is always chasing after him, but a smile is never far behind. But, the day she catches him making sparkling pictures in the air with his finger, she screams and yells, but not loud enough for the neighbors to hear. When Merlin is terrified and sobbing apologies for things that aren't his fault, Hunith falls to her knees and buries her tear-streaked face in his shoulder.

She cries again, because that is a mother's burden, when Will finds out. But, a secret she will never betray is that her tears hadn't been entirely terrified or mournful. It's good for Merlin to smile once in a while.

When she writes to Gaius and sends Merlin to Camelot, she does not weep. Hunith hopes this will be good for Merlin, even though she knows she is throwing her son to a pack of wolves.

When he comes back, bumping shoulders with the golden prince of Camelot, she cannot help the smile that spreads across her face. Camelot is his home now, but there is no room for tears here because Merlin is home and in her arms, and because she understands the hand Arthur places on Merlin's back and the weight of it all.


End file.
